Just Posted: Nokia 808 PureView Review

We've just posted a six-page review of the Nokia 808 PureView, focusing on its photographic features and performance. On paper, the 808 offers the most advanced camera features of any smartphone, including manually selectable ISO sensitivity from 50-1600, exposure bracketing, and five white balance presets. Then, of course, there's the unique way it uses its large, high pixel-count sensor - over-sampling each image to offer 8, 5 or 3MP output for sharing or 38MP full res files if you prefer.

As well as an overview of the 808's photographic features, we've also included plenty of real-world and studio samples, and we've added the 808 to our standard studio comparison tool. This will allow you to take a look at how it performs alongside compact cameras and DSLRs in both its highest-resolution 38MP and 8MP PureView modes.

So just how much of a threat does this represent for conventional compact cameras? Read our six-page review to find out.

Comments

I'd love to think that this 808 fits the "One Ring to Rule them..." ideal for those of us who would like to carry just ONE piece of technology around. I'm going to ditch my iPhone 4 when the contract expires in October - I neither need nor want all those apps.

My present conclusion is that I will revert to a small, very cheap Samsung flip-phone (with looooong battery life) + a Sony WX-100, with a far fuller feature set than the 808 and vastly superior video, notably zoom and image stabilisation... and < half the price. I nearly bought an HX-20V the other day, but the WX-100 really is far more pocketable at less than half the volume, albeit with a slightly reduced spec.

Has everyone in the world got a kick Nokia schedule. This is a PHONE yes a PHONE and for the average guy in the street something he can use for his snapshots its not an SLR its not a high end point and shoot. The Symbian system is perfectly adequate it has loads of useful grown up apps unless of course you want to play "shoot the zombie rebel kill everything that moves" Why don't the major phone networks offer it it seems that everyone wants to knock Nokia. By the way I have a Samsung smartphone which has a poor camera so I miss some great shots that pop up out of the blue, I would change my contract for this Nokia if it was offered. So come on lets get real its a PHONE with a very good camera!!

I can't conceive the need some of us have to give this cam-phone such a free promotion, again and again... and again.

Are they in fact crypto-sales representatives of Nokia flooding every web sites ? Are they just would-be buyers who are not so sure of their own choice and are looking for others reaction to comfort themselves in their futur purchase decision ?

are we still comparing it against DSLRs and high end compacts that were all made with a single purpose in mind, and that is to take pictures ? Well .. that speaks volumes for the product...

The 808 created its own category, and it should be looked as a ratio between size/functionality vs. picture quality. Show me anything else on the market, that can produce that kind of quality/flexibility, in such a small package. The sensor module in the 808 is wayyy smaller than anything that comes even close in terms of quality.. I am not even going to mention the optics, because that is another masterpiece from Zeiss, which deserves a lot of credit.

"The sensor module in the 808 is wayyy smaller than anything that comes even close in terms of quality.."

Not quite sure about that. Judging the studio shots clearly the best quality comes ONLY if the phone used with low ISO settings and no digital zooming. When shot at high ISO it is easily killed by latest m4/3 cameras. The detail level goes down as lighting gets dimmer. DR and colours are not very good to begin with.

As for flexibility and UI, it's camera is still designed for consumers and not for somebody who takes photography more seriously ;) Yes it is the best camera phone to date, but somebody has smoked something if they claim that it offers better "flexibility" than real cameras.

The reason this thing happened because the manufacturers were too comfortable and chose a slow innovation race. Sony, a new comer, created something a little exciting, the RX100. Nokia is similar and taking risk, why make something when people buy the iPhones and Androids where the camera is good enough to them.

rx100 is pretty cool, but again, its 250 grams, and designed with one purpose only.. to take photographs. The 808 is 160 grams, and you have a fully featured smartphone + camera, which does quite well in most situations. And the rx100 is worth almost $700 .. can't even send a text with it.

My point is, why carry two devices ? If you are goint to to do that, carry a Nikon D800 along the 808... otherwise id doesn't make much sense.

It is incredible to compare this camera phone to a real camera. Makes no sense at all. The image quality of the RX100 is in a completely different league than mediocre output from this phone. It is a good camera for a phone, but that's about it.

Once again, Anhund has perfectly summed up my thought. This cam-phone is what it is and nothing more.

Wanting to compare it non-stop to a "real" camera is pointless as this item is good - maybe very good ? - just in some well-defined conditions of distance, luminosity and speed of reaction. It's as is one wanted to compare a swiss-army-knife to a damascus knife used to be used quickly and extensively in a restaurant. For sure the swiss-army-knife cut well enough, but it reaches its limit in no time.

Though the reviewer touched on bad highlight clipping, he also added that such problem is prevalent in compacts or any other camera phone.I agree with him that you can judge a small photo whether it is taken with a compact or DSLR by just looking at the DR or lack of it.

Bad handling of highlights is obvious in today's cameras. Manufacturers can get away with more MP because people are just looking at the resolution and noise performance. Noise is muffled with noise reduction and reduced through better electronics but handling highlights require big, fat, old fashioned photosites.

I still consider this Nokia very good compared to plenty compacts out there.

how many loosers around?!... look upstairs, then click - sample image/studio comparison tool - and put what ever you like against 808 (except d800) , and on martini bootle try to read "alessandria year" on ANY FF camera! no way Hose.. and on Nokia 808 you can. Of course, nobody here will try to put 808 in dark, to put brighter , sharper lens, zoom's , have ergonomics and other aspects Dslr's can do. But Nokia 808 HAVE REAL RESOLUTION! (probably real 30MP) Period :)

One thing to remember: Nokia 808 does waaay better than all Canon/Nikon/xxx DSLRs and compact cameras in making phone calls and sending SMS. In fact, I have never trusted my Canon 550D with a SIM card, it fits in SD card slot badly...

Its a DSLR companion, not a replacement. Or in my case, my DSLR is a companion to the 808, since I find myself taking pics with the phone more often than with the DSLR.. 808 is pretty much always with me.

The camera start up time is impressive as well, from locked to ready.. can't be more than 1-2 secs.

After having looked through the samples gallery I'm impressed with the quality from this camera phone, but then again it doesn't even stand up very well to my 10 year old nikon Coolpix 4500 and it certainly lacks far behind the image quality that we all have become used to from dedicated cameras like S100, J1/V1, RX100, 4/3, NEX etc. just to mention a few examples.

The fact is that this is a camera phone with a small lens and even though quality has improved immensely (here mostly by down sampling) then it is just a camera phone that do not stand up very well to a real camera in terms of image quality.

I'm sure that will change over the next few years and the gap between this type of camera and dedicated cameras will become much closer.

one more looser... look upstairs, then click - sample image/studio comparison tool - and put what ever you like against 808 (except d800) , and on martini bootle try to read "alessandria year" on ANY FF camera! no way Hose.. and on Nokia 808 you can. Of course, nobody here will try to put 808 in dark, to put lens, zoom's and other aspects Dslr's can do. But Nokia 808 HAVE RESOLUTION! Period

I'm sorry for you resuyaber if you can't see it I'm afraid no one can help you. I'm talking about image quality not resolution. Nobody cares about resolution if the image quality is mediocre which is the case with the 808 compared to any of the cameras I mentioned.

And ALL cameras you mentioned, save for one (S100) are actually small SYSTEM cameras. This phone should be benched against P&S cameras and with those, it stands it's ground. Oh btw, it can also make calls and text, surf and so on. It also happends to be always in a pocket, try put one of those cameras you mentioned before in your pocket and then come back for further discussion.

Oh, my... It's crystal clear that some among us (oder "unter uns" ?) are Nokia satellites sent here and there to promote this item that is to a Dslr what's a broken watch to a good Perrelet: for sure it gives absolute hour two times a day, and suffers no monthly variation. Is it worth buying such a watch though ? For my part, I prefer the Perrelet even if it's not atomically exact these "two times a day". Instead, it's exact well enough every hour a day, isn't it better ?

And insisting all over again on the RESOLUTION (in capital, in case we are too stupid to understand) is a sufficient proof the ones who talk of photography using this criterion extensively are not photo-connoisseurs. Their aggressive as well as childish behaviour stands against the product they intend to make us buy.

For my part, it's no use further insisting, I hate to be fooled by a hard-seller.

@rpm40,"It may be more challenging to shoot a nice photo with a cameraphone than with a top end dslr..."

But it is more challenging to most people to open even an entry-level DSLR user's manual and learn all its features and subtleties. That is why P&S cameras sell more than DSLRs (apart from price/weight/size) and people use their cameraphone...

the aquiles heel of nokia and their stronger side is hardware. Design is beautiful!, software is adequate but processing units and ram are impossible to cope with .. and yet theyi give you something like this!

Nokia put the equinox cuad core or the tegra 2 ! and make a flag ship again!

This is a great compact camera but a horrible phone!.

I rather have something like a micro 4/3 or maybe the canon s95 and a great phone!.

Even with last years Nokia 701, i made nice photos and 1 was printed by a magazine (i removed all Exif first). Yes, hi-iso images look like watercolor paintings - but only at pixel level, at a lower level they look nice and are good memories of relaxed evenings without logging a real camera around.

Some apps for Symbian are missing i guess, including useful GPS tracker and Nokias can't be connected with new cameras to be controlled via Android (i'd love live view on an external device).

Some nice things about my Nokia 701: - solid Old World build quality- dedicated button for camera on, then snap - dedicated toggle button for screen off + screen locked, then screen on + unlocked- LED flash/video light useful as torchlight- general ease of use- alarm clock usable when phone OFF- navigation with maps WITHOUT connecting to internet or mobile service provider in many countries

I made good use of all these features mentioned above. I just wish there was a Nokia for Android.

to Lensberg ...this is not theory - you have samples to see with your eyes (if you like). and i excluded D800 as you can read. (and meaby some very few other exotic far over 10k$ cameras.. ) but DPReview stuff put over 130 very nice cameras in compare tool list, and nokia 808 beat them ALL (except one)

Nothing but ludicrous. Just try to take photos of a tennis match, of a politician interview, of a quick event happening 50 meters away or what you think could be a UFO speeding in the sky in the twillight... and you will find your cam-phone is good to nothing, except taking funny photographs of your best friend picking his nose on the sly, or your girlfriend eating sloppily her melting Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

At ISO 1600 it is not far from the Canon S100. In bright light it captures more detail than some dslrs. It fits in a phone.

Perhaps Nokia should produce a tiny camera based on the same sensor. Make the lens a bit bigger and a stop faster. It would still be the tiniest P&S out there, and the faster lens would take the high ISO performance to high-end P&S levels in a far smaller package.

"In bright light it captures more detail than some dslrs" you are not correct, as 808 outperforma ALL DSLR (except high end ones, D800). Even with 5D3 is tie in terms on resolution , and as you say in bright light)... you can check studio compariison tool on this site. You can make that claim on other site where you can't check that easy .

It is completely ridiculous to compare this camera phone to even a Canon s100 which outperforms this phone by far regarding image quality. It is an impressive camera phone but comparing to dslrs etc. makes no sense at all.

Resolution is only one - but VERY important - part of the IQ. DR-wise, while we still don't have a numeric value, comparative shots with the RX100, both at base ISO, have shown better DR for the 808 than for the RX100.

He..he. Incredible that some people think resolution has anything to do with image quality. The s100 for example is far better than this camera phone that so easily blows highlights. Comparing it to dslrs is insane. It is an impressive camera phone though.

"He..he. Incredible that some people think resolution has anything to do with image quality. The s100 for example is far better than this camera phone that so easily blows highlights. Comparing it to dslrs is insane. It is an impressive camera phone though."

Resolution is only one - but VERY important - part of the IQ. DR-wise, while we still don't have a numeric value, comparative shots with the RX100, both at base ISO, have shown better DR for the 808 than for the RX100.

The big deal breaker for me, of the 808 as a camera is the abysmal highlight clipping and the highlight roll-off that, well, doesn't roll.

This, the less than wonderful high ISO performance, and the unfriendly form-factor make it extremely unlikely that enthusiasts will stop buying high end P&S anytime soon. But I do applaud Nokia for pushing the envelope in the camera-phone space.

I looked long & hard at the Nokia 808 & Symbian was the deal breaker for mealso it is not available except in an unlocked version, which meant more of a hassle for me using it as a phoneI went with the Samsung Gallaxy III which has an excellent, though more conventional, camerawhat I like is how well it integrates various commonly used cellphone camera functionshere is a sample of what it can do --------> http://ic2.pbase.com/g4/90/46890/2/144925387.hI3Aalhi.jpgwhich is an available light pussycat pictureAF is surprisingly good & it has a swell macro mode that I use all the timeI much prefer WebOs to Ice Cream Sandwich, but having that in the Gallaxy is a dreamtoo bad Nokia is likely going with Win 8 for this phone when released in a locked versionWebOs is such a fine OS for cellphonesHP's decision to sink their WebOs devices will be studied in years to come as one of the great business blunders

Artichoke, I feel with you about WebOS. Too bad the camera in the WebOS Pre 3 is lousy. I just couldn't live with that. The multitaksing on the Pre 3 is great and I love the screen.

Did you study the Nokia N9? The camera is somewhat better and the Linux Debian based OS is more powerful than that on WebOS device.Maemo (Harmattan / MeeGo) is such a fine OS for cellphones.Nokia's decision to sink their long standing Maemo line of pocketable internet devices will be studied in years to come as one of the great business blunders.

Luckily the Maemo Team has now united in the Jolla project.A phone is due to be released this year but I don't expect a great camera at first.

I am amazed at the quality of the images from my 8 meg droid cam, and it has a tiny sensor. This camera is a revelation, with a relatively large sensor, Zeiss lens and many megapixels. For a cell phone, the posted pictures are fantastic. Who wouldn't want one if you were without a dslr? I will however wait for a droid model.

they don't want to hurt their own p and s market.. Nokia,HTC, and Apple don't care. If Apple had this technology, they would ruin the compact camera market, just like they did to the music player market with the ipod. Compact makers are lucky that its Nokia...

As far as I'm concerned, I do not care going out without my phone as I don't use it so much, but I absolutely can't bear being without any camera. Thus, I wonder if one day, we won't have such a news not about a phone that can be used as a "quite good" camera but about a camera than can be used as a phone. I think, by the way, that the time is near when the "phone function" won't be an independent one and it will be added on demand as an application to any item of your choice: a watch, a pair of sunglasses, a key holder, a shoe... It will get smart ! In that case only, I will maybe be interested in a "camera that can take good pictures". Otherwise, out of the question !

720p in 2012? Sensor size unknown? Must be pretty small (around 1/3"), given that the thing has 3x optical zoom - they would have mentioned a billion of times it it was larger than 1/1.7". Well, I don't think it would have had better IQ than, say, the already IQ-challenged iPhone 4S or the S3...

Screw smartphones, I don't want a 2 year contract and monthly data plan. Put the sensor in a compact superzoom with 1080p60 and I might buy it. My Verizon feature phone was free on our family plan that my wife pays for and it has an 8mp camera with 720p HD video . I use my 64GB iPad with Verizon 4G LTE if I need to go on the internet and view web pages as well as my 13.3" i7 MacBook Air or MacMini with 26" monitor.

Personally I think everyone should just refuse to sign these ridiculous cell phone contracts and start negotiating sections of them with the carriers. The way it is now the contracts are very lopsided toward the carrier. This will only change if people stop signing them and stand up for themselves. Cell phone contracts are unfair because people let them be.

"2 year contract and monthly data plan" Why does this remind me of the time when I was depending on a photographer shop to develop my pictures? I did not love camera's for that reason :)Lucky digital is here and phones are sold separately from data plans. (over here)

These convergence appliances leave me cold. I don't even use the video function on my cameras. I prefer something that does one thing exceptionally well, over things that can do a lot of things somewhat well.

I realize there are lots of people who love the camera phone concept, but I really think Dpreview is casting their net much too widely now.

If they decided to start reviewing security cameras or endoscopes then someone would probably be thrilled. Because after all... they are also cameras of a sort.

IMHO, there are still plenty of real cameras that need reviewing... and that should be the priority of this website.

However, it's not my website. I am just a non-paying guest. And even with all this newly added clutter, Dpreview is still a great website.

I have to disagree on a few points, all the while understanding where your coming from...- security cameras and endoscopes are not something a consumer would usually use as a walk around type camera, a smartphone is, so maybe taking it a bit far there- these are real cameras, and probably should be a priority for DPR right now, seeing how Samsung sold 73 million units last quarter, Apple something like 15 million ...whether you like it or not, this is the biggest sub-sector of cameras sold and ever seen. Let's face it, DPR is out to make money, and reviews like this will bring many more viewers

That said, I hate cell phones, and never carry one around just to take photos and hardly ever carry the one around I have, but I do carry around a slim compact camera ...but I'm old and out of touch ...I really do think these camera phones are where the youth are going ...I think the whole SLR vs m4/3 is really offbase and I think in the near future it's going to be the ultra small compacts and cellphone cams that and ILC camera is goingto be fighting against... we'll see, all opinion, most on this site don't get that.

Just a word about the "best seller" argument: snake oil was sold by hectoliters in the past, it did not ever prove it was a good medecine. In fact, while being popular toward naives, it didn't cure anything (cf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil ) in history, and if it was still avaible, for sure there would be new-born suckers to implore to be fooled in spite of what we know in our century about that snake oil (toad oil in Japan).

You might have a point, except for the fact that this camera (the camera part of the phone) represents some real innovation in camera technology, and surpasses the image quality of most pocket cameras.

I'm 49. I still have my Minolta XD-11 with mint leatherette trim. I also have a Canon DSLR, a Panny bridge and a Panny P&S. I for one would be very happy to have image quality rivaling my bridge or DSLR in a smartphone.

I'm trying to simplify my life and my collection of "possessions". The smartphone helps with this a lot. Heck, two weeks ago I just stopped wearing a watch for the first time in my adult life. I always have my phone with me so I'm not missing the watch at all. I'm looking forward to the convergence becoming better and more affordable in the coming days.

For me, the emphasis is on AFFORDABLE, because I'm on a no-contract, pre-paid phone plan. Have been for years now. As others have mentioned I'm in no hurry to pay $50/month just to have the privilege of carrying a cool phone/camera in my pants pocket.

If you took the SIM out of an 808, it could be seen as a touchscreen rival to something like a Ricoh GRD series (albeit a very different approach).

Ignore the smartphone aspect (though that also involves ignoring the features that are helping smartphones kill-off conventional compacts), and you still have a prime-lens camera with a huge sensor and a really interesting approach to the way it uses its many pixels.

It doesn't matter that it's a 'convergence appliance' - it's a fascinating piece of kit that raises all sorts of interesting possibilities about the future of small cameras (regardless of whether they can make calls).

This is exactly the sort of thing dpreview has always been interested in.

To Bill Bentley: I understand you perfectly and I find very sound in mind to make ones possible to limit the burthen of our countless acquisitions. Look at how many remote-controlers we have for instance to understand immediatly what we are talking about.

Yet, I fear the price to pay to practicality will be too high very soon. I know some Japanese who lost (were stolen from) their valuable phone: the thing in itself is very expensive, that's a point, but beyond that, it contained their transportation card paid for one or several months, their watch, their diary, part of their schedule, emails, photographs taken, downloaded songs, and in some cases their electronic-purse with "some" money in it.

We have to never forget, never, that concentration may mean speed and efficiency, but overall it happens a day or another when it proves to be a desastrous weakness. That day, we loose all and it's too late to regret.

Yes I like buying devices that do one thing extremely well. Which means for me being able to shoot a DSLR with portrait primes is doing one thing extremely well, but having a smart phone with a fast wide-angle lens of good quality + innovative sensor is still a big plus. It allows my DSLR to do one thing extremely well compared to having to use a larger and more IQ compromised zoom for social 'snapshots'.

{Marty4650) I agree 100%, and I have a smartphone. But I'm like you, I'm tired of all of this "convergence." Yes it is handy to have 3011 features in 1 item that's always with you, but such an item does not perform the functions as well as the "one thing only" devices it replaces, even if it does it "good enough."

Even things like the calculator app on a smartphone--compared to an all-touch device you have actual physical buttons with tactile feedback. Compared to something like a Blackberry, it's still better because you're not having to use the numbers in the reverse "telephone" format (with 7-8-9 on the bottom row as phones do it vs the top row as calculators do it). I use my phone's GPS but I still own a Garmin Nuvi so that I can do other things on the phone while the GPS handles driving directions (my wife typically drives while I'm riding "shotgun"). A phone that does nothing but phone calls (I'm thinking landline) will have multiple line capabilities & such. The list goes on.

@WilliamJ. Your point is taken, but pretty much the same, or worse, could happen by a pickpocket at the train station. I am not suggesting putting your whole life inside the phone and replacing your wallet, although it is coming to that no doubt. Plus, everything is moving towards "cloud" back up so even if you lose your phone all your pictures and data are one new phone and a download away. Plus the new phone security wipes the lost/stolen phone data remotely and completely.

The best camera, is the camera you have with you. Fact is, I never know when I'm going to see something I want to document, and I just won't carry more then my cellphone wallet and keys with me throughout the day. I bought my Evo LTE phone because of it's amazing camera. I may trade it in, at a loss, and get this if the camera feature is that much better. There are consumers that love these reviews, and am glad they are covered.

Add a waterproof case to the 808, and you have the highest IQ ruggedized point and shoot you can buy! Sure, the new waterproof Oly TG-1 zooms optically, but the pureview "zoom" makes up for it, and at full resolution the Nokia definitely pulls away in IQ.

I think using similar tech to the 808 to design a proper weatherized pocket cam would be a great idea.

If you need your camera to make your shots interesting, then you're not doing it right. Cameras may open possibilities, but they never make shots interesting, and a interesting photograph is possible with any camera.

Sure, if you have a nice camera like a D800, great high iso, faster autofocus, more control over DOF, and so on, it's easier to get the picture you want- and yet, amazingly many photographers took great photos back when they were limited to asa 25, no autofocus, many with nearly infinite DOF.

It may be more challenging to shoot a nice photo with a cameraphone than with a top end dslr, just like its more challenging to shoot the same with an old film camera. There were plenty of good and bad photos taken then. There are plenty of good iphone photos and bad Canon 5d III photos taken now.

Maybe what you meant is that you're too lazy to work within the limits of a cameraphone to take interesting photographs? :P

"Many with nearly infinite DOF" ?? What are you talking about ? Have you ever glazed in the glass of a 4x5 or 8x10 chamber? Do you know why the tilting mechanism was so useful back then ?

And then the other uninformed comment about camera and "Interesting" photographs.. to record reality, yes, you need an interesting subject. Have you ever spent 5 seconds examining a print by Edward Weston ? How you "feel" the texture of the object? Come on, stop showing your ignorance with posts like this one.

I find a lot more interesting photography using home-brew analog processes, shoe-boxes with pinholes, toy-camera's and such, as I find interesting photography using smartphones.

How dull can you get. Press a button and some programmers deliver the thing they have thought up for you. Sometimes with some pseudo-random-lomo-effect which is just another program.

Any subject gets better when photographed with something else than a smartphone. Be it an M9 or a Hello Kitty cam. Only sometimes, a smartphone is your best cam. That is when the smartphone is the only camera with you, and the choise is smartphone or no picture.

For one thing, it is a good (though small) prime lens of fairly low f-stop, so diffraction and such are not killing the images the way some people fear. And it is a very big sensor as phones (and compacts) go, with pixels no smaller than on many other phones, and the un-cropped images are displayed at high PPI.

For another, the talk of lenses limiting the D800 is a bit exaggerated: usually, both the lens and the sensor contribute some limits on IQ, and that was true even with consumer grade 35mm film as the sensor, but despite that, improving the film or sensor while using the same lens usually gives some clear improvement in IQ.

I'm impressed by the images, but every time I read 'PureImage' I remember that an antiquated meaning of 'pure' is dog poop. Really. I like the creativity here. I suspect these sorts of sensors will, eventually become common in phones and compact cameras of all types. Want to 'zoom' your laptop's webcam or your ruggedized underwater can? This solution is more compact and has no moving parts. The sensors will continue to get more sensitive so can be made even smaller. I suspect with more processing power a better job of oversampling can be accomplished, too. These are a bit softer than I would have expected, given how good the sensor is at full resolution.

The main problem is a conundrum for those who also need a smartphone and also like to shoot photos. Do you get this camera and sacrifice on the features of a smartphone, like application, ussability, etc? or do you get a good smartphone like iPhone or Android phone and sacrifice on the camera features?

Or, I suppose, also this. Get both a good smartphone and something like a RX100, XZ-1/2 at a lot more cost in terms of weight and money but get all the best?

I think I will wait for an Android version of this camera, from someone else, since Nokia will only be using Microsoft os, if not Symbian. Story of its failure.

The upcoming MS OS looks quite nice and clean. I just think it's going to have a hard time catching up in apps unless MS comes up with some killer feature to overcome that disadvantage. I don't think this is it, but it will make a few sales.

I'd say Sony already raised their game with the RX100. Now I wish they'd combine all that camera goodness with the features others offer. No reason not to have a great camera without a touchscreen, Wi-Fi, and GPS. They take nothing away from the camera, add nevligible size or weight, and are useful. Camera purists will be unhappy, but they will still have their primitive playthings, too. Eventually the camera just becomes a phone. I'd much rather have that kind of camera phone, one that is a great camera first and a phone second. The 808 takes nice pictures -- for a phone.

Actually glad my RX100 doesn't have a touchscreen. Changing settings is super fast with the control ring on the lens, and the lovely LCD is not constantly filled with fingerprints. It has all the modern goodness you could want, i.e. sweep panorama, hdr, auto dr, filters, etc, and like most Sony products it's not the slightest bit "primitive".

Are fingerprints and smudges more of a problem with some touchscreens over others? None of my cameras have touchscreens, but my iPhone does, and I rarely notice the fingerprints despite tapping away on that thing all day.

I am a bit anal myself about wiping down the screens on my cameras, but even then I only notice when the camera is off, so may do it at the end of the day before I put it away.

I might be wrong, but it seems like the camera industry has a more reasonable take on patents than the mobile device sector, be it tablets of phones. I'd hate to see the convergence between mobile devices and cameras introduce the egregious level of patent-trolling and lawsuits that is taking place in the mobile phone/tablet sector into camera development.

"You are right Nokia Belle and Android are very similar but the problem is that the most app developers are leaving Symbian."

Get an iPad (or an Android tablet) and you have the best of both worlds. (Who would browse the Web when there's - even compared to the best Android phones / the iPhone 4s) a much superior tablet hardware (much higher-resolution, eye-pleasing etc. - think of the Retina-screened iPad 3)?

I've had the smartphone for almost 2 weeks now, got it from amazon.. its an amazing device. The camera might not be the best, bit in terms of flexibility vs. size ratio, there is nothing else out there that can even come close.

Nokia did an amazing job overall.. it took them over 4 years to bring it to production..

My biggest dislike of camera phones is the horrible ergonomics. I'll have to read this review more carefully -- it sounds like this might have a better physical shutter button than most. I've noticed that there are a lot of really bad photos out there on social media that have been taken with phones. One issue is that while more people than ever have phones, a lot of people lack basic technique and composition, or it simply isn't a priority for them given the circumstances, which is fair enough for spontaneous snap shots. But, I really think that having to try and hold a cameraphone still that has an awkward shape, maybe not even have a physical shutter button, which you then have to contort your thumb or index finger to take a picture, causing camera shake, is just not a good idea. I find the camera on my i-product occasionally convienient, but never enjoyable.

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Nikon's Coolpix P1000 has moved the zoom needle from 'absurd' to 'ludicrous,' with an equivalent focal length of 24-3000mm. While it's great for lunar and still wildlife photography, we found that it's not suited for much else.

The Nikon Z7 is slated as a mirrorless equivalent to the D850, but it can't subject track with the same reliability as its DSLR counterpart. AF performance is otherwise good, except in low light where hunting can lead to missed shots.

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We spoke to wildfire photographer Stuart Palley about his experiences shooting the recent Woolsey fire, why the Nikon Z7 isn't quite ready to take a permanent spot in his gear bag, and 'that' Tweet from Donald Trump.

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